Senior Mission Engineer, Autonomous Defense Systems

Shieldai; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that protects service members and civilians with intelligent systems, including Hivemind autonomy software and aircraft technologies. The company operates across U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific with global mission support.

The Mission Engineer will own mission representations, applying systems engineering, modeling, simulation, and operational analysis to translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements, informing design

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in mission engineering, systems engineering or related field.
• Experience with mission-thread, force-on-force, capability-gap analysis or CONOPS.
• Proficiency with SysML or similar tools alongside AFSIM, STK, MATLAB or Python.
• Experience with DoD stakeholders, warfighters, or government agencies.
• Ability to apply modern compute, data analysis and software development best practices.
• Excellent communication and briefing skills for senior leadership and customers.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, agile environment and obtain clearance.

Responsibilities

• Own the mission representation across programs using SE, M&S and operational analysis.
• Translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements and trade-offs.
• Develop mission models, architectures, CONOPS, and requirements traces.
• Define trade studies and sensitivity analyses for mission drivers and thresholds.
• Collaborate with DoD stakeholders, operators, and warfighters to align capabilities with needs.
• Prepare technical reports, mission architectures, and recommendations for leadership.
• Leverage cloud/HPC, containers, version control, CI/CD, and automated testing for analyses.

Skills

Mission engineering

Systems engineering

Operational analysis

Modeling & simulation

Communication skills

Briefing to leadership

Agile development

Security clearance

Tools

Cameo

SysML 2.0

AFSIM

STK

MATLAB

Python

CI/CD

Job description

Shield AI is a venture-backed defense-tech company that protects service members and civilians with intelligent systems, including Hivemind autonomy software and aircraft technologies. The company operates across U.S., Europe, Middle East, and Asia-Pacific with global mission support.

The Mission Engineer will own mission representations, applying systems engineering, modeling, simulation, and operational analysis to translate mission needs into traceable autonomy requirements, informing design